Without direct experience with that fermentor... its a design issue without any meaningful workarounds. It's a narrow ball valve, then the butterfly itself takes up some of the little space there is. It's going to clog on all but the lightest brews.
TBH that was the deciding factor for me to get a Catalyst from Craftabrew which has a 3" valve vs the Fast ferments 1". Not trying to show up and thread crap, but I don't think there is much to do about it.
Maybe get the racking arm so you can just rack through that instead of the bottom valve?
I am by no means an expert, but I do own a FastFerment and had the same issue originally..
What worked for me was keeping the valve open from the get go, before even adding the yeast..
Havent had an issue since- the yeast works its way down to the bottom of the collection ball.
I installed a port about 3 inches from the bottom and I havent had to change the collection ball yet since.
When fermentation / aging is complete I transfer to my keg via the port (the yeast / trub / gunk is all below the port and in the collection ball- so no need to ever change it out in my experience) ...
Like I said, Im no expert by any means but that has worked for me.
My issue has been super-fast fermentations. I think that has more to do with temp and yeast though!
Cheers!
Is anyone else having blockage issues with the Fast Ferment?
How do you dislodge the yeast so it actually makes its way down to the collection bulb?
I'm on my second batch and it clogged up both times.
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